Curriculum Vitae

Antonius Adamske acts as conductor as well as organist. Leading several groups of old music, he performs in sense of historically informed performance practice.

He received his early musical education from the pianist and composer, Bodo Frey, before studying church music (C-Diploma) with Johannes von Hoff in Oldenburg. He studied choral and orchestral conducting with Walter Nußbaum at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien, Hannover, where he was involved in a number of large-scale projects, including conducting Ligeti ́s “Aventures“ at the international symposium “A Blind Man in the Labyrinth“. He then studied organ with Tobias Lindner at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (CH), focussing on early music. He has attended masterclasses with, amongst others, Jan Scheerer, Manfred Schreier, Howard Arman and Sigrid T’Hooft, and has continued to develop specialisms in the realms of historical performance practice and contemporary music. Private conducting lessons with Jörg Straube and Andrea Marcon, as well as harpsichord lessons with Sabine Erdmann have also been formative. He has worked as Assistant Conductor to Laurence Cummings (International Handel-Festival, Göttingen).

During his time as a student in Hannover he directed the Göttinger PetriChor as well as its offshoots, the Kammerchor and the Collegium Vocale, in performances of cantatas and oratorios by, amongst others, Bach, Graupner, Stölzel, Händel, Mozart, Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Spohr, Brahms and Reger. He has conducted the Göttinger Symphonie Orchester, the Philharmonische Kammerorchester Wernigerode, the Potsdamer Barockorchester “Musica Affettuosa Borussica“, the “Ensemble Wunderkammer” and the Göttinger Barockorchester, with whom he now regularly works. Adamske directs the Universitätschor at the Technical University in Clausthal. As well as oratorios, such as Telemann’s “Daniel“, he has conducted operas, including Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess“, Gossec’s “Le triomphe de la republique“, Charpentier’s “Acteon“ and “La descente d’Orphée aux enfers“, and Cavallieri’s “Rappresentatione“ (semi-staged). He conducted a staged production of Lully’s “Armide“ in Pau (France) at the invitation of Heinrich-Mann-Institut, and in the historic theatre at the castle in Valtice (Czech Republic), at the invitation of the Czech Handel Society. The performances in Czech Republic featured a collaboration with the renowned dance ensemble “Hartig“ (Prague). He has regularly given masterclasses in Germany and abroad (France, China) on subjects such as historic performance practice and “Figurenlehre“. As of summer 2018, he has taught courses on the connections between maths and music at the Technical University, Clausthal, and on historical performance practice at the University of Göttingen.

Adamske was organist of the Klosterkirche Nikolausberg, where he in 2015 founded an annual musical festival, the “Nikolausberger Musiktage“, featuring a range of ensembles from Germany and further afield. He has recorded Bach’s Cantatas for solo bass with Henryk Böhm, receiving plaudits from the Nordwest-Zeitung: “Adamske has already made a name for himself as a conductor of early music… shaping Bach’s vocal lines precisely”, and the Kieler Nachrichten: “a strong performance in every respect”. Böhm and Adamske will perform this programme in 2019 in the Thomaskirche, Leipzig, and the Kreuzkirche, Dresden. Adamske is artistic director of the “consortium vocale berlin”, a choir focussing on early and contemporary repertoire, as well as serving as studio choir for the Hanns Eisler-Universität. He has recorded programmes for “Radio Berlin und Brandenburg“, most recently with the “Altbachisches Archiv“, and regularly prepared choirs for masterclasses, including in challenging repertoire such as Lesur’s “Cantiques”. He has been invited to guest conduct the renowned Monteverdi-Chor Hamburg in 2018, as well as the Vocalconsort Leipzig. 2019 he conducts Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s “Elijah” with the Holland Konzert Choir. Furthermore he will be guest conductor of Capella Vocale Gandersheim.